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I got this email from one of my readers or possibly YouTube subscribers and decided to answer it in a post or two as they are the “issues” I mentioned I had with my locs in my 5 year Braidlock post. Here is part of the email:

“….however, I have failed to find an answer as to why the loc tips lose colour – they look tinted. how can I avoid that. Secondly i am in the process of removing one of daughter’s locs due to unsightly lint, so much that when i look at it, i lose the joy! Yet, I don’t have any except at the back row. Please help!..”

Now I am not a scientist of any kind so what I’m about to say is strictly my opinion based on a bit of research and putting stuff together in my head! Results are not guaranteed. lol

Having said that, I think the reason the tips look tinted is due to oxidation of the hair which is a natural process but can be inadvertently hastened. It just looks more prominent on locs probably due to all the hair strands being wound together thus making it a lot more noticeable than on loose hair. If one observes, it’s there on longish loose hair as well but you must be looking at it at the right angle in sunlight, ie the red-ish tint you can see on someones hair that you know does not dye or henna their hair. The other reason I say on long-ish hair is that the oxidation is on the ends which is the oldest part of the hair and takes awhile to show up. You more than likely will not see it on shorter hair because the old ends have been cut off or broken off.

I’ve noticed this on my braidlocks/dreadlocks as well and of course on the bottom 1/3 of the locks. I really noticed it today with my hair in a half-up, half down style. Not sure if you can see the color difference in the pic but I can definitely see it.

Now, I bet you’ve heard of people naturally bleaching their hair with lemon juice and sunlight. Yeah the same process is going on with our hair without the lemon juice thus at a slower rate.

Can this be prevented? Again, I’m not a scientist but I don’t think so. However, we may be able to slow down the process. Wearing a hat while outside is probably one way. Though not always practical especially in the middle of summer in the very hot regions of the country where temps can get above 95 degrees. Diet always places a big part in how our hair looks so start there by making sure you are getting enough vitamins and nutrients like protein, vitamins C & E.

Vitamins C & E are known as antioxidants. Hmm… antioxidants. The last part of that word should ring a bell. Oxidizing is what the sun and air is doing to our hair so it makes sense to me to put things on the hair that contain some version of these two vitamins to help slow down this natural process.

I also stumbled upon something while researching what herbs to put in my herbal coconut oil to make it like a leave in conditioner for my locs. One ingredient that is added to conditioners is called a sequestrant. From Wikipedia:

” A sequestrant is a term for a food additive. Sequestrants improve the quality and stability of the food products. Sequestrants form chelate complexes with polyvalent metal ions, especially copper, iron and nickel, which serve as catalysts in the oxidation of the fats in the food…”

The reason for this additional ingredient in conditioners is so they will function better in hard water. Ok, the bolding of the word oxidation is mine. Now I know they are saying “the oxidation of the fats in food” but why would I want to put something on my hair that causes oxidation of any kind when that’s one of the things I’m trying to prevent or at least slow down in the first place? I’m all about prevention, not having to fix the problem after the fact. Plus, I don’t want to oxidize the oils which are fats on my hair. Even natural sebum contains fatty acids. This is probably done so that the conditioner can bond to the hair as they’re designed to leave a tiny bit of the conditioner behind on the hair even after it is rinsed it out.

Needless to say, this is one of the reasons I stopped using conditioners. For the brief period I was using them I noticed that “ashy brown tinted’ look on my locs. I must note that I was in the sun a lot more back then as well.

So since using oils and herbs to condition, I’ve noticed the ashy brown has gone to a little darker brown. Still there, but looks a lot better and almost deliberate. Hibiscus is a great source for Vitamin C and I bet that’s why it’s used in Indian hair care. Grapeseed oil has Vitamin E and of course my personal favorite, coconut oil! So this maybe something to think about.

For the last 3 weeks or so I have been experimenting with a spritz that consists of fresh rosemary, a few dried rosebuds and a tiny bit of dried sage. The rosemary you see in the picture above is one of three shrubs from my very own garden…that I’ve been growing for 6 years! And, I’ve not used any of it until now. Can you say, DUH?! Yeah, I’ve been Rip Van Winkle, sleeping big time on this.

Rosemary is an herb/shrub that is very easy to grow. It likes a well draining soil and is drought tolerant once it is established. I planted these in the spring of 2004. Our winter, spring and summers have been drier than normal since ’03 with the worst year in ’07. It was so bad that we had pretty severe watering restrictions but my rosemary made it through just fine surviving on whatever rain Mother Nature gave it. I do not and have not given it any additional water since the first year after it was in the ground. It’s pest free, trouble free and loves the heat and humidity we have. Now that’s my kind of plant. It’s Latin name means “dew of the sea” because it was first discovered growing along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

It also smells absolutely wonderful when you brush up against it or run your hand across the leaves. Much better than the essential oil to my nose, but the essential oil is more concentrated. I’ve read somewhere, that it takes 70lbs of plant material to get 1lb of EO. Don’t quote me on that, but I know the ratio of plant material needed to what you get as an EO is pretty wide. You know, kinda like cooking collard greens. When you are picking those big bunches, it looks like you are gonna have a whole mess of greens, but when they finish cooking, you swear somebody stole some out the pot. lol

For hair, fresh rosemary is awesome!! Now I have used the essential oil in the past and it seemed to dry my hair out which I think is why I was afraid to try the fresh or dried but the fresh plant is the exact opposite. And I had no idea how to use it, so that’s probably why it’s taken so long for me to try it. It seems to kick up my herb infused shealoe up 360 notches, takes away the oilyness and leaves my locs nice and soft. Even when there is not much humidity in the air or I’m in an air conditioned place for awhile, my locs are not feeling crunchy like they were before as ,it started to get hot around here. We really don’t have a spring season so it starts to get hot in April, where business feel the need to turn on A/C. A/C draws moisture out of the air so I’m figuring it means it’s doing the same thing to my locs. Since I don’t use A/C, I was noticing that when I did go out, my locs were fine before I left and when I returned home. But they felt crunchy while I was out somewhere, inside under air conditioning. One of the benefits of HIL syndrome I guess, because I may not have noticed that otherwise. I’m also spraying it on my scalp to see if it will stimulate growth along with conditioning my scalp. Rosemary has been used for a very long time as a hair conditioner and for darkening the hair.

I’ll type out how to make your own rosemary water later in the next post and post the video. If you want to see the video sooner, it’s already posted on my YouTube channel, titled “How to make Rosemary Water”.

TTYL

Edited 1/30/2012 while re-tagging after the move to WordPress:

I no longer use rosemary water as a spritz. It was too much for my hair and scalp but I’m considering using rosemary water/tea along with with the sage tea that I use to cut my herbal ACV mix for my scalp. I’ll post about that at a later time but I’ll post the video on the blog here.